Our life living off the land in our log cabin, breathing fresh mountain air, and getting back to basics.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Post Holes, My Hard Head & Green Insects

We spent our day measuring for and digging the holes for the remaining posts for our deck. The beginning was tedious because of all of the detailed measuring, but we figured it out. Ronnie did stop by to help us set the line for the first hole, which was very helpful. And I am happy to say he was quite pleased with the progress we made yesterday. We needed a few minor adjustments to the alignment, but not much. We were very proud of ourselves!

These are the 4 holes we dug today, 2 to go, but we were tired, and guess what, we decided to stop (see, we do learn from our experiences!).

And this is the stringer Ronnie helped us put up to ensure the first hole was exactly where it needs to be. This gives you an idea of where the deck will be ending, which is pretty much at the end of that horizontal 2x4.

This is the picture of my boo boo that some of you were asking for. Doesn't look too bad but I still have a nice lump about the size of my palm; it isn't a lump like a ball rather a lump like a mound. It's a good thing I have a hard head (some would say in more ways than one). I must admit I am more distressed about the amount of grey I see than the boo boo, and sure hope that thing heals up before my hair appointment next week! Those grey's need to be gone!!!

I will close with these green creatures that caught my attention today. This way you don't have to have that picture of my boo boo in your mind for the rest of your evening/day!

This is a Sphinx moth caterpillar we discovered today. Beautiful coloring and interesting details! I am not sure what the moth will look like, as there are many, many green caterpillars. But I am quite confident it is a Sphinx of some sort.

And this is a Katydid. He was cleaning himself on our grill, perhaps preparing for his evening of song. I have been thinking that the loud sound I have been hearing all night long has been Cicadas, but I now know they are Katydid's, which make a 3 & 4 part sound like Ka-ty-did and ka-ty-did-nt. You can hear them from dusk until about 4am (I don't know why they stop at at that time, but they do). Cicadas make the underlying sound, sort of like a very small maraca that stops now and then. Sorry, I don't have a picture of a Cicada, but if I did, it wouldn't work for my green insects section today.)

Truth be told, I would never have known the difference in the sounds if I had not seen this lovely creature visiting our porch tonight. After researching a bit, so many questions I have had (but didn't necessarily know I had them) were answered!

The mountains have introduced me to so many new and interesting things, have I told you lately that I love this life? I DO!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

2 comments:

you all will be so proud of yourself after that deck is finished. I speak from experience, we double the size of our deck all by ourselves several years ago. We still admire our work every time we set our there!

Deck looking great...and with Ronnie complementing! Thanks for the "head" shot...I don't think I see any gray hair...only hair with many life experiences! Love the katydid photos...I did not know the differnce sounds either...see you are educating your readers. Hugs!

About Me

There are moments in life when you are reminded of how precious every moment is, and how important it is to love what you live. A favorite quote by Mark Twain “twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones that you did” was posted in my office. Following several undesirable events occurring in my life recently, most significantly my younger brother passing away unexpectedly, I knew it was time to “sail away from the safe harbor” (more of the same quote).
So my retired husband (best friend/confidant/Mountain Man) and I decided we wanted to go to the place we loved most, our log cabin in the Smoky Mountains, and “live off the land”. Time to…Simplify…Explore…Appreciate…Discover…Learn… Grow…
So I resigned from my job and here we are. I am recording the adventure in this blog. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I know I will.